Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Earlier this week, Senator Hillary Clinton said "We didn’t ask for George Bush’s tax cuts. We didn’t want them and we didn’t need them." Earlier this year, Warren Buffett testified before Congress saying in part "I think we need to….take a little more out of the hides of guys like me." Barbara Streisand once said "Republicans cater to the rich. I’d rather pay more taxes, see social reform, health care and research for AIDS."

All of these people could have voluntarily paid more in taxes. But they chose not to. Maybe that’s because it is not easy or clear how you can pay extra taxes if you want to.

I am here to help. This week, I introduced the "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Act." Under this bill, a line would be added to the tax form 1040 which would easily allow you to add as much additional tax as you would like over the amount that has been computed. Furthermore, you can call for the money to be spent rather than just applied to pay down the deficit. Under this bill, all those people who want to see the Bush tax cuts… Read More

The Governor believes that the "people" spoke when they passed Proposition 22, passing a statute saying that marriage shall be defined as being between a man and a woman. I nosed around online, and I couldn’t find any statements during the Governor’s campaign indicated how he personally voted on Prop. 22. Proposition 22 is currently before the California Supreme Court — some believe the Court will find that the statute in unconstitutional. Proponents of preservation of the traditional family are now qualifying a "new version" of Prop. 22 that itself a Constitutional Amendment, thus it would trump any notion that the language in it was unconstitutional. The Governor apparently feels that because the "people have spoken" in passing Prop. 22 that he is duty-bound to be its champion… Unless and until it is struck down. What does that mean that the Governor is doing? The Governor involved in the legal dispute before the California Supreme Court, on behalf of upholding Proposition 22. The Governor has also vetoed (twice now) legislation codifying same-sex … Read More

He’s Baa-ack… The saga of the sitting school board member that failed to qualify for re-election – and the resulting fallout – continues. Whether his political career continues remains to be seen. (We broke the initial news and posted a follow-up on these pages.)

The nutshell is that San Diego Unified Schools Trustee Luis Acle, a Republican, didn’t-couldn’t (whatever) garner 200 signatures to defend his own seat, leaving the lone anticipated challenger in a free-ride-gimme. Or so it was thought.

Now Acle will run as a write-in. That is, as long as he can collect 200 signatures, something – by the way – he has failed to do twice before. That third time thing, apparently.

Here’s the Union-Trib story on the latest development.

But, you may ask (because I did)…”I thought… Read More

I have to admit. I agree with Governor Schwarzenegger that fighting over gay marriage is a waste of time. The whole idea is foolish. There is no such thing as a marriage between two men or two women. You can call it many things, but marriage it is not. The whole purpose of a family is to raise children, and, the studies prove (as confirmed by 5000 years of accumulated human experience), children are best raised in a family consisting of a married man and woman. It doesn’t always work out that every child gets that chance, but the fact that it doesn’t work out for everybody doesn’t mean that government should go out of its way to screw things up.

The whole concept of "gay" marriage is nonsensical. Our homosexual friends want the "benefits" of marriage, they say, so that their relationship can be co-equal to a heterosexual relationship. However, society has granted the benefits it has to married couples because it wants to encourage a strong marital relationship for the purpose of providing a stable home for children, not for the purpose of encouraging people to engage in sex. Sex is, indeed, a part of life (a… Read More

I’m being punished. I tried to save the world with my eco-friendly, carbon neutral Lincoln Aviator and clever plan to increase the sales of carbon credits by letting those of us that have them drive in the HOV lane – and now I’m paying the price for my efforts.

It appears that those hyper-capitalists at LiveNeutral.org have sold my name to the environmental community as a good prospect for them. And now Casa Battin is junk mail central. Ugh.

It was bad enough that they made a 300% profit on my carbon credit, but this….this is just mean.

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

I’m being punished. I tried to save the world with my eco-friendly, carbon neutral Lincoln Aviator and clever plan to increase the sales of carbon credits by letting those of us that have them drive in the HOV lane – and now I’m paying the price for my efforts.

It appears that those hyper-capitalists at LiveNeutral.org have sold my name to the environmental community as a good prospect for them. And now Casa Battin is junk mail central. Ugh.

It was bad enough that they made a 300% profit on my carbon credit, but this….this is just mean.

We’re up to our ears drowning in solicitations from my fellow eco-warriors pitching their efforts to save the world, if only I’d become a member of their group. (Special Introductory Offer!)

And reading their mail, it’s clear the Earth is dying – the skies are dark, the oceans polluted, the Sequoias are almost gone, we can’t breathe and the earth is sick with fever….. and for some reason it all seems to be President Bush’s fault. Go figure.

There is some irony here though. … Read More

Today Governor Schwarzenegger continued on his "I don’t mean what I say" Tour by announcing to a national meeting of the Log Cabin (Gay) Republicans that he would oppose a ballot measure that may appear on the November ballot to place into the State Constitution a definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman.

This from the Governor who has vetoed (twice) legislation to sanction homosexual marriage in California.

At best, we have another "off the cuff" remark from the Governor that his staff will have to "spin back into the bottle" or at the worst, you can add another log to the "what I said on the campaign trail doesn’t matter now" fire.

I’ve reached out to his Communications Director for some clarification, but he’s been silent (for the whole ten minutes since I e-mailed him)…

Oh, ironically, Schwarzenegger was at the event representing Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain. A few weeks ago McCain stated publicly that he supports the initiative to ban gay marriage. I’m sure that McCain appreciated this "gift" from Arnold…… Read More

This just in. The memo from pollster John Nienstedt regarding a recent City Attorney race survey says it all in the headline: "It is looking more like a two-horse race between City Attorney Mike Aguirre and Superior Court Judge Jan Goldsmith."

Once again, the bottom line is simple. For those not happy with Democrat Aguirre, well, fellow Dem Scott Peters and Republican Brian Maienschein are serving an opposite purpose, if they are not from an alternate universe. The GOP-endorsed Goldsmith is the contender with viability, not to mention a lack of baggage from the San Diego pension-debacle.

Some excerpts:

Competitive Edge Research & Communication, Inc., conducted a poll on behalf of the Republican Party of San Diego County among 506 randomly selected likely June voters residing in the City of San Diego. The poll was fielded March 20-24 (excluding Easter Sunday). The data was appropriately weighted to reflect known parameters within the likely June electorate. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.4%.

The results demonstrate that San Diego Superior Court Judge Jan Goldsmith continues to be City Attorney Mike… Read More